ActionSA disappointed by cabinet approval of the immigration White Paper
19 April 2024
ActionSA had previously submitted its objections to the White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection to the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) Headquarters in Pretoria, in the beginning of the year, as we believed the White Paper sought to absolve the ruling party from its role in South Africa’s dysfunctional border management and dysfunctional immigration system.
The White Paper, in its current iteration, still fails to adequately address skilled immigration into South Africa which could assist in growing our sluggish economy and creating jobs by attracting more people who can invest in the country, or who provide critical skills our economy desperately requires.
Remarkably, the Department of Home Affairs received in excess of 4086 comments from members of the public into the draft White Paper, and we are led to believe that they have carefully considered each comment and incorporated some within a space of a month into the final draft. This is a sign of a long-established practice of this government not to take seriously public participation in the lawmaking process.
ActionSA still, therefore, rejects the current iteration of the White Paper which should have focused on the following proposed targeted interventions:
Use South Africa’s immigration regime to grow the economic prosperity of our people. This means:
making it easier for people with skills and capital to live, work and invest in South Africa;
reforming the visa regime and addressing processing challenges to make sure more people can visit South Africa easily and legally;
expanding the list of countries whose residents can visit South Africa for tourism without visas;
introducing and enforcing fines for employing persons without the right to work in South Africa.
Address the structural deficiencies at the Department of Home Affairs to ensure better enforcement of immigration regulations.
Expand the state's capacity to support asylum seekers, refugees, and vulnerable foreign communities.
Introduce e-governance processes that allow citizens and immigrants to do their business online.
Improve intra-governmental cooperation to improve the management of immigration.
Ensure those who enter our borders do so legally and obey the law when they are here, by:
Ensuring the effective roll-out of the Border Management Authority to improve the management of South Africa’s borders.
Improving the collaboration between the BMA, SAPS, and the SANDF to ensure our borders are adequately monitored.
Implementing technological solutions to better monitor the flow of goods and people across our borders.
Improving the deportation process related to undocumented foreign nationals without a legitimate claim to residency or asylum in South Africa.
Improving the deportation processes related to foreign nationals found guilty of committing crimes in South Africa.
ActionSA maintains that unless there are fundamental, wide reaching legislative and institutional reforms that adequately capacitates the Department of Home Affairs, South Africa will still have porous border issues. It is incumbent of us to remove this uncaring, unpatriotic government and set forth towards fixing the Department of Home Affairs.
Issued by Lerato Ngobeni, FixSA Member for Home Affairs, ActionSA, 19 April 2024
